Travel within Africa
 

Reaching out for some more wisdom as this next big trip (aiming for June/July 2016) starts to come into focus!

Since I am hoping to book on Qatar using miles, I am planning to fly into Cape Town and out of Zanzibar. This means the beginning and end (safari in Tanzania before a few days in Zanzibar) are my parameters and in between I plan to visit Victoria Falls and one other location - possibly the coast of Namimbia, using Walvis Bay as my entry/exit points.

My questions at the moment are:

1 - What additional destination would you add for a well balanced trip? I feel that the piece we may be missing is something more engaged with the local community, although I am not sure how to do that in a short amount of time without it being one of the very touristy set-ups. Would also, of course, love to do a gorilla trek but that is just not in the budget for this trip. So, suggestions?

2 - It seems to be both expensive and time consuming to fly from place to place. Are there any specific airlines that I should look at that may not be coming up on my search engines? Any other tips in this area? Perhaps a specific order of locations that may be the most cost/time efficient?

Thanks, as always.

whirlwind... just returned from southern africa...

i couldn't find any discount airlines for our trip... it seems like the fares are pretty locked for major tourist spots like victoria falls. (british and s.a.)

we absolutely fell in love with the chobe area, which is easy to get to from v.f. it is a bit crowded, yes... but you just can't beat being on the river for birds and animals. if not chobe, some other major river area would be great to add in.

we had to pass on the gorillas, too, for the same reason... ah, well... next time.

<i>Since I am hoping to book on Qatar using miles...</i>

In that case you'll be limited as to which airlines to use intra-Africa. Qatar is in Oneworld, so the only option within southern Africa is British Airways' South African affiliate Comair (which flies under BA livery.) Comair flies from Joburg to Windhoek and both Livingstone (Zambia) and Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) but doesn't fly into Tanzania any more (they did briefly some years ago, but just to DAR) so you'll have to pay money to get to Tanzania, and it won't be cheap. Unfortunately, there's not enough demand for flights to prompt somebody into running discount fares between the likes of LVI and DAR.

Chobe would be an obvious choice if you're going to be in the Victoria Falls area, although frankly I'd be inclined to skip Victoria Falls (potentially underwhelming at that time of year) and use those days somewhere in SA or Tanzania (or Namibia).

Thank you both for the feedback!

Gardyloo, I apologize for being unclear. The flights on points are just in/out from the States and therefore determines our start and finish. Within Africa am open to any airline other than Flyafrica about which I have read truly appalling reviews.

yes. definitely book a water area... watching the elephants swim across the river one evening was the highlight of our trip, for me. beat out all kinds of leopards and lions. magic.